This $1,400 luggage is the hottest quiet status symbol for celebrities and wealthy travelers. The more beat up it looks, the better.

It’s what lured him — a lifestyle content creator and real estate flipper — to the brand and why he eventually “splurged” to buy his first Rimowa, the $2,175 aluminum trunk, about 1 ½ years ago, he told BI.

He’s since purchased a second trunk for his girlfriend and a $1,430 carry-on luggage for himself.

“This is a status symbol for me,” Baptist said. “It’s the same thing as my Goyard wallet. I achieved purchasing it, and it’s a necessity for me now.”

LVMH acquired the now-126-year-old German company in 2016

Rimowa gave rise to two of the largest hard-shelled luggage trends when it debuted its aluminum luggage in the 1920s and its polycarbonate options eighty years later.

Since then, myriad competitors like Away, Samsonite, and Tumi have unveiled similar styles — most for a fraction of Rimowa’s price.

With other options on the market, you might wonder why it’s worth splurging on a suitcase that costs double that of a flight to Europe. After all, Rimowa’s iconic bags were absent from Good Housekeeping, Travel and Leisure, and Wirecutter’s 2024 best luggage lists.

To understand why they’ve become a cult classic, its biggest fans say you have to try one of these bags for yourself. And it’s fine if they break — Rimowa offers a lifetime warranty.

Rimowa’s 3 Ws: Wheels, warranty, and wear

She believes the quality of Rimowa’s products declined after LVMH acquired the company. Still, no other luggage maker can compare to its quality, comfort, and convenience.

“When you travel a lot, you want it to be as pain-free and hassle-free as possible,” Antonenkova said, noting that she’s partial to Rimowa’s interior compartments and wheels.

It’s a sentiment other fans share.

He thought the shiny luggage looked cooler than his previous one from Away. And while he called the cost of his new suitcase “a little insane” — $1,550 after tax and shipping — he decided to max out his credit card for the purchase.

However, his sentiment on travel splurges remains the same: “I’m walking to the back of the plane with my beat-up Crocs, my $2 Haines t-shirt, and my Rimowa,” Smith told BI.

Fitting for a tech guy, he did note that his bag is not as technologically advanced as other luggage options. There are no integrated chargers, for example, and the lock on his suitcase is manual.

However, he has no complaints — it’s “timeless.”

Rimowa creates its products with a ‘design to be repaired ethos’

Garoute has considered competitors like Béis and Away. But once Rimowa implemented its lifetime warranty, “it was over,” she said. “Rimowa won.”

And for good reason — she’s had two of her carry-on Rimowas repaired, once after her 10-year-old aluminum one cracked on a flight back from France and another after an airline broke a wheel off of her “essential lite” luggage.

The Rimowa store fixed the former in five minutes — despite her having purchased it before the lifetime warranty policy went into effect — and gave her a new suitcase for the latter.

“The amount of money people spend in replacing their luggage all the time, they might as well just invest in one that will repair itself,” Garoute told BI. “Yes, it’s expensive when you swipe your card, but after that, you’ll never swipe it again.”

Just don’t bring your luggage in for repairs when it inevitably gets scuffed up.

Rimowa’s CEO said he would rather see his products scratched up — or, as he said, “carrying the scars of all the travels” — than in pristine condition.

Think of it as “Jane Birkinifying” your luggage. The more you’ve traveled and beat it up, the better — even if you end up “hyper-fixating on every little piece of damage” on your more than $1,500 purchase, as Smith said.

“People on social media are really mean about Rimowa,” Garoute said. “But I don’t know any Rimowa lovers who don’t buy more than one. I will have them for the rest of my life.”